fruit filled cake Archives

Spiced Pineapple Raspberry Upside-Down Cake

May 24, 2013 by Betsy Eves 3 Comments

I’ve been wanting to try making a pineapple upside-down cake for a few months now… but just didn’t have the time. The, Jessie’s (aka CakeSpy) new book, The Secret Lives of Baked Goods, came out and it had a recipe for the cake in it. I *knew* that meant it was time to make it!

But… you know me, I really just can’t leave a good recipe alone. hehe I had to put a JavaCucpake spin on Jessie’s recipe and make a few changes! Instead of cherries, I used fresh raspberries and also added some vanilla and spices to the cake batter… and so was born my Spiced Pineapple Raspberry Upside-Down Cake!

Today is also the first day of my husbands pre-deployment leave. What that means basically is that he gets some time off before his unit deploys to war. This time off is a blessing… and a curse. I am so very grateful to be able to spend a big block of time with my husband and family. We get to travel, sleep in, spend quality time together. But – that also means that shortly after this vacation – he’s going to leave me, our kids, our life and join a war to do his job – defend our country.

*sigh* .

But, one this is certain. I will always have my family and my friends… my baking, my passion for bringing others joy with my blog… and you. My fabulous readers and my friends. I know these coming weeks will be great… the coming months difficult… but I also know that I’ll have you to help me through it. Thank you.

Enjoy!

Spiced Pineapple Raspberry Upside-Down Cake

Yield: 1 9-inch square cake

Ingredients

Topping

5 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
9 slices canned pineapple rings, drained of juice
21 fresh raspberries

Cake

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup + Tbsp heavy cream
fresh raspberries, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Gently spray 9x9in pan with cooking spray.
Melt butter for topping and pour into the prepared 9x9in pan.
Crumble the brown sugar in your hand and sprinkle it over the butter. Use a fork to break up any clumps and incorporate the butter and sugar together. Using the back of a spatula, gently press the butter and sugar evenly over the bottom of the pan until it's completely covered.
Arrange the pineapple over the butter and sugar. You should be able to lay them out 3x3 - like a TicTacToe board.
Place a fresh raspberry, hole side down, in the center of each pineapple. Also, place a fresh raspberry, hole side down, in the spaces between the pineapples. (Note: I did not put a berry in the 4 corners due to space, but you can if you have room.) Set the pan aside.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for the cake for at least 3-5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl several times during this process.
Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition until completely incorporated.
Mix in the vanilla.
Alternating, add the flour and heavy cream beginning and ending with the flour. Mix just until combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl after each addition of flour.
Gently scoop the batter into the pan. Using an offset spatula, slowly spread the batter over the fruit being careful not to move any of the fruit from their place. Spread the top of the batter smooth and flat.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Immediately after removing the cake from the oven, place your serving platter upside down over the pan. In one motion, flip the plate and pan over. Leave the pan in place for several minutes so that the juices of the fruit and brown sugar/butter drip into the cake.
Gently lift the pan off the cake.
Garnish with fresh raspberries.
Jessie's book says to "store the cake loosely covered at room temperature for up to 2 days."

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{Tutorial} Neapolitan Layer Cake

May 13, 2013 by Betsy Eves 7 Comments

Ooooooooooooh I’ve been in a funk. A baking fun. Last week I make a double chocolate layer cake but since then… nothing. I haven’t even been motivated to make rice krispy treats. (I have 4 boxes of Rice Krispies – thank you WIC.) So today, I opened up my baking cookbooks, browsed Pinterest and checked out a few of my favorite blogs. One of the themes I saw running across all of them – Neapolitian. Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla together to make one delicious dessert. So, with Mother’s Day this past weekend, I decided that I’d make a Mother’s Day Neapolitan Layer Cake to celebrate.

Mother's Day Neapolitian Cake by JavaCupcake.com

My mom passed away 3 years ago… so she was definitely on my mind as I was making this cake. Especially when it was time to sit down and enjoy a slice. I’m certain she would have enjoyed this cake with a big glass of milk! Three layers of decadent cake filled with chocolate and strawberry frosting and topped with vanilla buttercream. Eat bite has a unique flavor…. it’s like a party in your mouth with every bite!

What really inspired me to make this particular cake was one of my most favorite bloggers, Amanda of i am baker with her Neapolitan Rose Cake. I’ve used her tutorials to make a rose cake before, but this one was going to be different. I was going to make the neapolitan cake, but I wasn’t going to do roses. Instead, I’d just smooth out the three flavors of frosting over the three different layers of cake. But still, that’s a lot of work! I had a feeling thought it was going to be so worth it in the end. And ya know what… all the hard work was TOTALLY worth it in the end because this cake was delicious!

So, instead of posting detailed recipes for this cake, I decided to write a tutorial on how to assemble and make this cake. I’ve posted the chocolate and vanilla cake recipes several times before, but tried a new strawberry recipe… I’ve linked to all of them below. You’ll also see what supplies you need to make this cake and a detailed tutorial to assemble it.

Enjoy!

{Tutorial} Neapolitan Layer Cake

For the chocolate cake:

I used THIS RECIPE for the chocolate cake. It actually makes too much batter… so when you prepare it, measure out a dozen cupcakes first and then pour the rest in your 9-inch round cake pan. Bake as directed in the recipe.

For the chocolate frosting:

I used my basic chocolate buttercream recipe, found HERE. You’ll probably use ALL of this for the cake, so you might want to make extra to frost the extra cupcakes.

For the strawberry cake:

I tried a new recipe for this cake and I think it turned out amazing! Thanks to the blog, I made that! for the recipe!

For the strawberry frosting:

I took my basic vanilla buttercream recipe and substituted about 1/4 cup strawberry puree (that I had reserved from the cake recipe) for the cream. I also added 1 tsp strawberry extract instead of vanilla extract. It was super yummy!

For the vanilla cake & frosting:

I used a whole batch of batter using my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe. It made a very tall cake & I trimmed off a lot of extra cake. So next time, I’d scoop out 6 cupcakes first, then pour the rest into the pan to bake. I also used this same recipe for the vanilla frosting, but I doubled it.

Neapolitan Cake by JavaCupcake.com

Supplies needed to assemble the cake:

-Cake layers and frosting
-Offset spatula
-Wax paper
-Cake stand or cake turn table
-Paper towels
-1 cup measuring cup
-Spatula/scraper

Assembling the Neapolitan Cake:

Trim the three cake layers so they are the same height.
Place a piece of wax paper on your cake turn table and place the chocolate layer with the trimmed side up.
Place 2 cups of chocolate frosting on to the first layer and spread evenly over the top.
Set the strawberry layer, trimmed side up, on to the chocolate frosting and gently press down.
Place 2 cups of strawberry frosting onto the top and spread evenly.
Place the finally vanilla layer, trimmed side DOWN, onto the strawberry frosting and gently press down.
Crumb coat each layer of cake with the coordinating frosting and place in the freezer for 20 minutes.
Once the cake has set – begin frosting the outside of the cake starting with the chocolate on the bottom and working your way up to the top with the vanilla. Use 2 cups of vanilla frosting on the top layer of the cake. If you need an idea of how to apply the frosting, check out my Ombre Cake Tutorial – see steps 3-6 for how to apply the frosting in layers on the side of the cake.
Make sure to clean off your spatula often with the paper towels. Mixing flavors at the seams will result in smears of color onto the wrong layers.
Using your offset spatula, do your best to smooth the sides of the cake without smudging the colors together. This process takes a steady hand and a lot of time. GO SLOW. Unlike the ombre cake, you don’t want the colors to collide together to create the gradual change of colors… you want three distinct color layers – but still want a smooth, finished look.
To transfer the cake to your cake plate, gently and carefully pull the wax paper and cake off the edge of the cake turn table. Place your hand under the cake as your peel away the wax paper and pull the cake completely off the stand. Transfer the cake to the cake stand and use any additional chocolate frosting you have to touch up the bottom edges.

Filed Under: cake, cakes, chocolate, chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, family, frosting and icing, fruit, fruit filled cake, layer cake, life, recipes, strawberry cake, strawberry frosting, vanilla cake, vanilla frosting

Chocolate Raspberry Ombre Petal Cake

August 17, 2012 by Betsy Eves 19 Comments

Since I’ve been on a cake kick lately, I’ve been daydreaming non stop about what flavor to make next. I’ve been craving my favorite chocolate cake recipe and my fridge is fully stocked with raspberries so I knew I had to incorporate them into this cake. Next week I’m baking a cake for a birthday and thought today’s cake would be the perfect opportunity to practice a new decorating technique before I have to make the birthday cake!

I really took my time putting this cake together. I started it about 11am and finished it around dinner time. The most time consuming part was the frosting, not making the frosting, but decorating with the frosting. The cake itself only requires 2 bowls and a small pot, no mixer required.

Ombre is a style of decorating where you use several shades of the same color to frost your cake, beginning with the darkest and continue with lighter and lighter shades of your color until it becomes white. This cake being raspberry, I figured pink would be the best choice. I used Wilton Gel color pink, separated my frosting into four parts, thentinted my frosting three shades of pink and left one white.

The Petal Technique uses a round tip on your piping bag and a small spatula to create the effect. It’s a simple process, just very time consuming.

Since I’d never made a cake like this before, I did my homework and read several blogs about how to successfully create these looks on a cake. My favorite was from The Hungry Housewife. She posted a tutorial on her blog that demonstrated both the ombre and petal effect to decorate a cake. So, I watched this video, prepped my frosting and got to work!

I’m not going to include my step by step on how I decorated the cake, I’m going to let you read what The Hungry Housewife wrote… why reinvent the wheel. But, I will give you the recipe for the cake I made and the raspberry filling.

Let’s talk about the cake for a second…

Dark chocolate, rich, dense and moist. This is my FAVORITE chocolate cake recipe OF ALL TIME. Yah, it’s that good. And like I said before, no mixer required to make this cake… which makes it even better. I’ve used this recipe for cupcakes before, but I’d never transitioned it into a cake, but it preformed wonderfully in cake pans!

Raspberry filling… nothing better next to chocolate than this raspberry filling. Can I tell you a secret? Last night, after the cake was finished, I spooned this raspberry filling onto extra pieces of chocolate cake and shoveled it into my mouth. Actually, I made raspberry sandwiches with it… two pieces of cake filled with raspberry. Decadent. Heavenly.

A few things I realized during this cake that will make your cake making process a lot easier…

PLAN AHEAD! Decide what colors you want to use, what cake flavors you want to use and go over all your recipes and tutorials before you begin. Be thorough so there are no surprises.
Make sure you have all your tools ready. You really want to have enough bags with the same tip prepared and ready to go when you start piping. It will make this process 100x easier.
Go slow. Take your time. Don’t rush it. I know I get excited making new things and sometimes rush… but really, take your time. Breathe and enjoy the process!

I really hope you try this cake for your next special occasion. Your friends will be super impressed. I’m even impressed with myself. :)

Chocolate Raspberry Cake

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
1 1/2 cups brewed coffee
1 Tbsp espresso powder
1 Tbsp vanilla
3/4 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
2/3 cup sour cream
2 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Raspberry Filling

4 cups fresh raspberries
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup sugar
juice of a lime
2 Tbsp corn starch
pinch of salt

Vanilla Buttercream for filling

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1-2 Tbsp cream cheese, room temperature
1lb powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
vanilla bean - split the bean and scrape seeds from one half of bean
1/8 tsp salt
2-3 Tbsp milk

Vanilla Buttercream for icing

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3 Tbsp cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup shortening
2 1/2 lbs powdered sugar (about 10 cups)
2 Tbsp vanilla
seeds of 1 1/2 vanilla beans
1/4-1/2 cup milk
Wilton Food Coloring Gel - Pink

Instructions

Dark Chocolate Cake

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Grease and flour 4 8in cake pans.
In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter. Add the coffee, espresso powder, cocoa powder, and vanilla and whisk until combined. Set aside to cool slightly.
In a large bowl, sift together the sugar, flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the sour cream and the eggs. SLOWLY add a few tablespoons of the chocolate mixture to the sour cream and eggs. Whisk to combine. In a slow stream, whisk in the remaining chocolate mixture until combined completely.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in wet. Using a whisk, stir until no more lumps remain.
Divide the batter evenly into the 4 prepared pans. Each pan should get about 1 1/2 heaping cups of batter.
Bake 23-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing from the pans to cool on a wire rack.
Once the cakes have cooled, but are still warm, using a cake leveler to cut off the round mound on the top of the cake. Make sure all four layers are the same size.

Raspberry Filling

In a large pan, melt the butter.
Add the raspberries, sugar and lime and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Stir continuously so that the raspberries begin to break down.
Add the corn starch and stir to combine. Continue to cook until the raspberries thicken, about 2 minutes.
Stir in the salt.
Remove from heat and allow to cool completely before filling cake.

Buttercream (you'll use the same method to make both buttercreams)

In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese (shortening too if you're making the bc for the outside of the cake).
One cup at a time, add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
Mix in the vanilla extract, vanilla bean seeds and salt.
Add enough milk until you reach your desired consistency. Mix on high for about 5 minutes.

To color the frosting:

Divide frosting into four bowls. Set one aside that will remain white. Using a toothpick, dab a VERY SMALL amount of the pink dye into one bowl and mix until uniform in color. Use a little bit more color in the next bowl and even more color in the final bowl. The colors should get gradually darker.

To assemble the cake:

Place the first layer of cake on a cake board/cake stand. Using the first batch of buttercream, make a border of frosting on the top of the cake along the edge. This will create a space for the raspberry filling and keep it from oozing out the sides.
Fill the top open space with 1/2 cup of raspberry filling, spreading evenly.
Place the second layer of cake gently on top. Spread a 1/2 inch thick layer of buttercream evenly on top.
Place the third layer of cake on top of the frosting and repeat the process used for the first raspberry layer.
Finally, place the last cake layer on top. Using the remaining frosting to crumb coat the cake.
Freeze cake for 20 minutes before frosting.

Petal Cake Frosting Technique

Visit The Hungry Housewife for a complete petal cake frosting tutorial.

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Spiced Pineapple Raspberry Upside-Down Cake

{Tutorial} Neapolitan Layer Cake